Spanish Inquisition Research Paper

The Spanish Inquisition lasted from 1478 to 1834. The goal of the Spanish Inquisition was to expel, convert or kill all Non-Catholics from Spain in Spain. When people were accused heresy they would be pit on trial, but before they could be on trial they had to sit in jail which most of them were unsanitary and people were given little food to eat. The punishments people received if they were found guilty were: torture, public humiliation, and death. The trials were unfair, unjustified and not necessary. The Spanish Inquisition did not help spread Catholicism and in fact slowed the spread because of the fear that it instilled in Non-Catholics.

Within Spain, for a time Jews were accepted as productive and unthreatening members of society. This continued until it was decided that the Jewish community was not doing what was expected of them, at which time the Inquisition began. Jews had become accepted because they practiced and accepted the Christian faith in the public eye, however in private they

The arrival of the Inquisition was swift and powerful, the decline of the Inquisition was drawn out and pathetic. Laws slowly began to be abolished around the eighteenth century. The distinction between Old and New Christians was no longer legally binding, the Moriscos had all but been erased from Spain, and Judaism had no influence. The job was done. Over hundreds of years and a multitude of rulers hellbent on eradicating religious diversity, a mild amount of success had been achieved. As the decades rolled on, however, rulers became more and more disinterested with the inquisitorial rule. The looming French Revolution severely hurt the seemingly dormant Inquisition. The Revolution brought new condemnation for the movement, and more specifically, condemnation for the unnecessarily violent actions of the church. The Inquisition was truly crippled early in the nineteenth century as a Constitution was being constructed by Rafael Riego, an Asturian battalion commander. Through this, and various civil wars and revolts within the nineteenth century, the Spanish Inquisition was officially demolished. The movement that had thousands tortured, imprisoned, and murdered had finally

In 1532, an exploration led by spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro Conquered the Incan Empire. Pizarro, along with his army captured and killed the last Incan emperor Atahualpa in 1533.The Incas kindly welcomed the spanish into their Empire, when they suddenly set a trap for the unsuspected Incas.

The leaders of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella, chose Catholicism as the religion of the entire country with the intention of bringing the country together as a strong nation. The Spanish Inquisition was officially started to unify the people of Spain. It began as cruel torturing and persecuting of people because of their devotion to a religion other than Catholicism. This Inquisition was used for religious and political reasons. During this Inquisition, any accused misbelievers were given a chance to confess their disloyalty and to rat out other misbelievers.

The Inquisition mostly dealt with the conversos, or "Jews who had converted either under duress or out of social convenience, and were suspected of secretly practicing the Jewish faith." (The Spanish Inquisition, n.d.) While this is given as a definition of conversos, some people believe that the majority of conversos were excellent

Although the Spanish Inquisition does not start until around 1480, it has its roots in the late fourteenth century. Anti-Semitism began in the fourteenth century during a period of plague and economic hardship in Europe. The resulting violence and hatred along with campaigns to get Jews to convert to Catholicism persuaded many Jews to convert. However, these New Christians once again became the object of hatred because it was believed that many of them were faking being Christian and still practicing Judaism. It was during this period that the Spanish Inquisition began. The Inquisition’s main goal was to rid Spain of all Jews in an effort to keep the New Christians from reverting back to their Jewish ways. Disregarding the fact that the inquisition was completely immoral, it was successful in ridding Spain of Jews and the uniting the country in Catholicism; but, the goal was also to end anti-Semitism, and the inquisition only strengthened and extended the reign of the anti-Semitic ideology.

The rise of a powerful government and the enforcement of religious orthodoxy were factors that help established the Spanish Empire.

Racism is the belief that ethnicity is the primary determinant of human traits and that racial differences produce an inherent or natural superiority of a particular race over another.

As a major power in Europe, Spain set out to discover and colonize the Americas. Spanish conquistadors were sent out to travel to the “new land” and claim it in the name of Spain’s King, Charles of Ghent. Conquistadors is the key word here, meaning conqueror. Two skilled and powerful men were to decide who would be leading the expedition, initially to Mexico. Velazquez, unfortunately, was “too fat for such an undertaking.” This great quest was lead by Narvaez, an older and well-known Spanish Conquistador. The ideals of this, and all, conquistador is to overtake any people in the Americas forcefully. Spaniards and Europe as a whole was the major power, so to them everyone else was beneath them. So Velazquez devised a plan to successfully overtake

A legion of horribles, hundreds in number, half naked or clad in costumes attic or biblical or wardrobed out of a fevered dream with the skins of animals and silk finery and pieces of uniform still tracked with the blood of prior owners, coats of slain dragoons, frogged and braided cavalry jackets, one in a stovepipe hat and one with an umbrella and one in white stockings and a bloodstained wedding veil and some in headgear or cranefeathers or rawhide helmets that bore the horns of bull or buffalo and one in a pigeontailed coat worn backwards and otherwise naked and one in the armor of a Spanish conquistador, the breastplate and pauldrons deeply dented with old blows of mace or sabre done in another country by men whose very bones were dust

The inquisition was used for both religious and political reasons in Spain. Ferdinand and Isabella asked permission from Pope Lucius III to purify Spain of all other religions other than Catholicism. They began by driving out Jews, Protestants and other non-believers.

The word “inquisition” means to examine. Inquisitors would “examine” suspected Heretics, people whose ideas do not match those of the Roman Catholic Church, and punish them accordingly. This included torture and burning. The great inquisition movement that took place in Spain, or Hispania as it was called before Spain united. It was called The Spanish Inquisition. It took place for approximately five hundred years, from the late 15th century to mid 19th century. Many ironic elements were involved in the history of the Inquisition. The Spanish Inquisition lasted longer than any other preceding it, and was the most cruel, bloodthirsty, and festive of all. The objective of the inquisition, in its early state, was to

The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision by Henry Kamen, was released in 1997 and is the third edition of the acclaimed book centered around the infamous tribunal. The years following the first publication saw increases in the quality of scholarship and an influx of research.  New historical interpretations subsequently began to demonstrate an enhanced insight, as works like Benzion Netanyahu’s The Origins of the Inquisition presented original perspectives. Kamen was consequentially compelled to reevaluate the evidence surrounding the Inquisition, ultimately causing him to divert from his previous conclusions and adopt a revisionist perspective exploring historical causation. The Spanish Inquisition has been repeatedly studied for

The Inquisition executed Jews and Muslims. However, even the ones who converted to Christianity or born Christian were tortured if they once were of another faith or if it could be traced back in their roots. The ones who had the Jewish blood, or of any other faith and were born Christian, were tortured more severely. The accused was not allowed to have a lawyer or counsel for their defense.